Technology
Jefferies Top Growth Stocks to Buy Now Are All on the Franchise Picks List
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The top Wall Street firms that we cover are starting to agree that while the future is still bright for the U.S. economy, it also may be one of stock market gains much lower than the norm has been over the past 10 years. When that is the case, then investing strategies often shift from indexing to a more disciplined stock-picking routine. That’s when investors need solid growth ideas.
Jefferies highlights the firm’s top growth stocks to buy each week, and this week is no exception. The Jefferies team has reviewed third-quarter results and is very positive going forward on some of the biggest and most powerful technology and momentum giants. We found four that look like solid picks for more aggressive growth accounts, and all are on the firms Franchise Picks list, which contains the 22 top picks Jefferies has now.
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Activision Blizzard
This remains a top video gaming pick on Wall Street and Jefferies is still very positive on the shares. Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) develops and publishes online, personal computer (PC), video game console, handheld, mobile and tablet games worldwide. The company develops and publishes interactive entertainment software products through retail channels or digital downloads and downloadable content to a range of gamers.
Shares of the gaming giant have been volatile and are down a stunning 45% from highs posted last fall. Some recent positive announcements could be meaningful in helping the stock to regain traction. Jefferies said this:
Our early checks point to a strong release for Modern Warfare (launched 10/25) versus what we believe are modest expectations. Calls to GameStop locations were positive and the game has an opening weekend sentiment score of 67, per our online sentiment tracker SpikeTrap (vs. 63 for Black Ops 4). We conservatively model 22 million units sold of Modern Warfare and note that every additional 1 million sold contributes 3c to EPS.
Jefferies has a $65 price target on the shares, and the Wall Street consensus target is lower at $58.17. The stock closed on Monday at $55.71 a share.
Alphabet
The search giant continues to expand and, while search is king, the cloud presence is growing fast. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is a global technology company focused on key areas, such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, enterprise and hardware products. It generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising and by selling apps and contents on Google Play, as well as hardware products. The company provides its products and services in more than 100 languages and in 190 countries, regions and territories.
Alphabet offers performance and brand advertising services. It operates through Google and Other Bets segments. The Google segment includes principal internet products, such as Search, Ads, Commerce, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Android, Chrome and Google Play, as well as technical infrastructure and newer efforts, such as virtual reality.
Google has outlined expanding capabilities to facilitate commerce, capitalizing on the “treasure trove” of data provided by seven different properties, each with at least a billion active users (Android, Search, Chrome, Maps, Play, YouTube and Gmail).
Advertising remains a huge growth area, and the analysts noted this following the third-quarter results:
The Company reported third quarter results last week. Revenues beat on both core ad strength and rapid growth in other rev segments (Google Cloud, G Suite, Play and hardware). Other revenues grew 39% and was driven by the cloud. Margins and EPS also beat after adjusting for charges (French fine) and unrealized equity losses (we believe ride hailing investments). We think shares can continue to work owing to ongoing strength in core ad business and other revenue segments and the still attractive valuation at 11.4x 2020 EV/EBITDA, in-line with the S&P despite 2 times the EBITDA growth.
Jefferies raised its price target to $1,550 from $1,500, while the consensus figure is $1,450.33. The shares closed at $1,289.61 on Monday.
24/7 Wall St.RingCentral
This smaller cap company could be a great takeover target, and it just joined the Franchise Picks list. RingCentral Inc. (NYSE: RNG) offers a cloud-based solution for business communications that replaces legacy and expensive on-premise communications systems. It is delivered as an application that follows the user regardless of device (office phone, smartphone, desktop, tablet). Features include voice, text, fax, audio conferencing and integration with document and customer relationship management systems.
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For some time, Jefferies has believed the company has multiple catalysts, including continued traction with mid/enterprise customers, increased partner traction, international expansion and continued dislocation in the industry from legacy PBX/UC vendors. The report noted this:
Despite the move in shares post the Avaya strategic deal announcement, we believe the potential remains under-appreciated. We spoke with industry experts and did more analysis to assess the impact of the deal. We expect the deal to help re-accelerate Ring’s subscription ARR growth beginning in 2021 estimated and sustain 30%+ through 2023 estimated. We estimate this will result in ~$2.4b billion of subscription revenue in 2023, nearly 3 times our 2019 estimated forecast. We believe Ring’s market cap can increase to $24 billion in 3 years from $13 billion currently.
The company came in with outstanding results after the close on Monday. Earnings per share topped the consensus forecast, and RingCentral guided fourth-quarter earnings in line, with revenues above consensus. In addition, the company announced an expanded relationship with AT&T.
The $210 Jefferies price target is well above the $173.94 consensus target. Shares were last seen at $157.65, but shares were up over 9% in after-hours trading on the solid earnings report.
Texas Instruments
This old-school chip tech company offers solid value at current levels and is a great pick for more conservative investors. Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is a broad-based supplier of semiconductor components, ranging from digital signal processors to high-performance analog components, to digital light-processing technology and calculators.
Some 65% of the company’s sales are exposed to the well-diversified, business-to-business industrial, automotive, communications infrastructure and enterprise markets. While the stock was hit hard recently as it is a big Apple supplier, the long-term outlook for this venerable leader makes it a safer bet for accounts with less risk tolerance.
The stock was crushed after posting solid third-quarter results, but guidance surprised Wall Street. Jefferies remains positive:
We believe Texas Instruments lowering its fourth quarter outlook is more of a catch-up to peers than a foreshadowing of negative cuts for the group. As the company runs 2/3 of its revs through its consignment inventory program vs. 10-20% for its peer group, it makes sense to us that the company would report downward revisions to estimates later than its peer group this inventory cycle. We argue that a proactive inventory destock should impact semis with traditional distribution models before it impacts semis with consignment inventory models. As such, we believe the pullback in shares post-earnings last week presents a compelling buying opportunity.
Investors receive a 3.0% dividend. Jefferies has set a $150 price target. The consensus target is $126.14, and shares closed at $120.97.
These four top growth stocks that all reside on the Jefferies Franchise Picks list and may be poised for a very strong fourth quarter. With earnings mostly out of the way, it makes sense for investors to buy shares now in front of a potential continued fourth-quarter rally.
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